U.S. must provide incapacitated immigrants with lawyers, judge rules

Catherine Saillant - Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES ---- Two mentally disabled immigrants must be given
lawyers as they fight deportation, a U.S. district court judge has
ruled.

Jose Franco-Gonzalez, 29, of Costa Mesa, and Guillermo
Gomez-Sanchez, 48, of San Bernardino, are at the center of a case
that marks one of the first instances in which a judge ordered
representation for an individual in immigration proceedings,
according to a coalition of advocacy lawyers arguing the men's
cases.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee came last
week just before Christmas.

Both men have been free pending a bail hearing also ordered by
Gee.

In a March lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union ofSouthern California and other advocates argued that the men'sdiminished mental capacities made them unable to voice their owninterests.

Franco, who is moderately retarded, was convicted and served a
year in jail on an assault with a deadly weapon charge for throwing
a rock during a fight between rival gangs, his attorneys have
said.

He doesn't know his birth date or how to tell time, and has an
IQ no higher than 55, according to his attorney.

Gomez is a paranoid schizophrenic who served one year of a
two-year sentence for a 2004 assault conviction stemming from a
scuffle over tomatoes he picked without permission.

He has previous convictions, including for battery against a
police officer, which his attorneys have attributed to his mental
illness.

The lawsuit initially was filed only on behalf of Gomez and
Franco.

But the plaintiffs' lawyers successfully petitioned the court to
transform it into a class-action case on behalf of all detainees
with mental disabilities, attorneys said.

"Judge Gee's thorough opinion is a first step in ensuring that
the rights of those who are rendered helpless by their mental
illnesses are not ignored," said Michael Steinberg, a partner with
Sullivan & Cromwell who is assisting in the litigation.

Both men are still facing possible deportation.

Gomez is a legal resident and Franco has petitioned for a green
card.

Until they were freed in April, both had languished in detention
centers and psychiatric hospitals for years because authorities
considered them mentally incompetent, the plaintiffs' attorneys
say.